The subject matter disclosed herein relates to a system for delivering a material that neutralizes and biological organisms, and in particular to an aerial delivery device that gasifies a material to neutralize biological threats and decontaminate an environment.
Biological threats or agents are organisms that may cause harm or sickness to humans or other mammals. Some of these organisms, such as Bacillis anthracis (i.e. anthrax) have been modified such that they may delivered in a concentrated form in an attempt to cause harm. When such an organism is released, the area in which the release takes place becomes unsuitable for habitation. Cleaning or decontamination is difficult because these organisms, some of which are bacterial endospores, are resistant to treatments such as heat, desiccation, radiation, pressure and chemicals. Some fumigants, such as chloride dioxide, hydrogen peroxide, formaldehyde and ethylene oxide, have been successfully used in decontaminating large rooms or buildings.
To perform the decontamination, gas generators need to be delivered into the contaminated area. As a result, human operators also need to enter the area to set up and initiate the operation of the gas generators. It should be appreciated that the human operators need to wear protective clothing and equipment (e.g. face shields and respirators) to avoid contact with the biological threat. When the contaminated area is located in a battlefield or another area that is not readily accessible, the delivery of the gas generator may not be possible.
Accordingly, while existing systems and methods of decontaminating an environment of biological threats are suitable for their intended purposes the need for improvement remains, particularly in providing a system that contains the decontamination material in a stable state and can selectively transform the decontamination material into a gaseous form to neutralize the biological threat.